Due to high cholesterol, obesity, and heart disease concerns, many consumers are interested in making healthier choices with respect to their diets. For this reason, a need exists to provide consumers with whole grain, low cholesterol products. However, with fast-paced lifestyles, it is difficult for consumers to prepare healthy meals or snacks. Therefore, a need also exists to provide the consumer with ready-to-eat nutritious products. Furthermore, there exists a need in the marketplace for a comestible that contains high levels of whole grains in drinkable forms.
It is desired to prepare a whole grain product that maintains its structure during processing (i.e., the starchy endosperm, germ and bran) to meet the FDA threshold necessary to justify a health claim. More specifically, it is desired to prepare a hydrolyzed whole grain flour that is highly dispersible in liquid or semi-solid media that maintains the structure of the whole grain during processing.
Attempts have been made in the food industry to provide a hydrolyzed whole grain that maintains its whole grain structure throughout processing; however, the hydrolyzed whole grain flours tend to clump, have an unacceptable mouthfeel and/or are unappealing to consumers. The present invention overcomes the aforementioned problems and provides consumers with a hydrolyzed whole grain flour that maintains its whole grain structure and nutritional value, and is highly dispersible in liquid and semi-solid media, thereby having an improved mouthfeel and improved consumer acceptance.